Young Woman Dies After Contracting Common Infection

Ann Struthers was on vacation in Scotland when she started to complain about a . The college student, who was 18 at the time, went back home to try to find some kind of relief. In June 2013, her family dealt with the painful experience of losing the young lady at a young age. Soon after Ann felt her throat getting sore, her mother noticed that she was lethargic and did not want to get out of bed. Instead of a high fever, Ann’s temperature started to drop.

Unfortunately, doctors couldn’t treat the kind of infection that Ann had, and she died two weeks after her symptoms appeared. When Ann went to the hospital, the doctor felt that she only had muscle pain that would go away on its own. He wrote a prescription for her to take for pain and sent her home. Later that evening, Ann started to hallucinate. She thought that she was talking to relatives who died several years ago. Her mother took her back to the hospital, and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctor wrote a prescription for an antibiotic. She was also admitted to the hospital so that she could be monitored and given IV medications instead of being sent home again.

While Ann was in the hospital, her blood tests revealed that she had sepsis. She was given more antibiotics. Doctors drained fluid each day from her lungs to help her breathe. Ann was finally able to sit up in her hospital bed and talk to her parents even though she was moved to the ICU. As doctors started giving Ann more medications, her body fought them off. Her organs slowly began to stop working until she died from organ failure. Ann’s parents are trying to spread the word that no illness should be left untreated and that sepsis can quickly develop from any illness.